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Sunday, 8 March 2015

Doubtful Sound

From the small town of Te Anau on the shores
of Lake Te Anau we caught a bus one very cold (the weather was coming straight
from the Antarctic) 7am morning to Manapouri. Here we swapped vehicles for a
sleek looking catamaran and sped out onto the island studded waters of Lake
Manapouri the second deepest lake in New Zealand at 444m. We headed west across
the lake to the west arm and the site of one of New Zealand's most ingenious
engineering projects, the Manapouri hydroelectric power station. The initial plan
had been to build a dam at this end raising the lake waters by 30 metres, but
due to overwhelming national opposition the design was changed and the dam
concept abandoned. Instead a tunnels were dug vertically down into the
rock at the west end of the lake. 176 metres down a cavern was excavated
followed by a sloping 10 kilometre tunnel to Deep Cove. Turbines were fitted in
the cavern and the first water dropped through the tunnels in 1971. The station
has since been refurbished and produces over 20% of New Zealand's electricity,
enough to supply the whole of the South Island.

From here we switched transport again back
to a bus which took us over Wilmot Pass by narrow road, which was built to
construct the power station, to Deep Cove and the head of Doubtful Sound. A few
boats were moored up against the bank and we boarded our second catamaran of
the day had cruised off into the dark waters of the sound.

Within a few minutes we spotted a pair of
penguins in the water, these were Fjordland Crested Penguins and one of
the rarest in the world - a great spot. A few minutes later a pod of Bottlenose
dolphins were sighted swimming straight towards us. Some zoomed straight by,
others played in the bow wave and showed us a few tricks, jumping into the air
and swimming alongside. They can grow up to 4 metres long and can dive to over
200 metres hunting fish and squid. We read that the dolphins here are much
larger than you would find in more temperature or tropical climates, probably
because this is the furthest south they are found and they need to keep
themselves warmer.

The area is remote and untouched. The sound
started as a steep narrow valley but soon widened out into a much wider body of
water, still enclosed with steep valley sides. It was formed by glacial erosion
over the past 2 million years. It is the second largest of New Zealand's fjords
and one of the deepest fjords at 430 metres maximum depth. The huge volume of
fresh water that flows into it is less dense than the sea water and therefore
sits on top creating a fresh water surface layer up to 4 metres thick. This
fresh water is stained dark with tannins leached from the vegetation of the
hillside, this reduces the penetration of light into the already shady fjord
waters making them look almost black from our view on the boat. This darkening
fools many of the species that live here into thinking they are in deeper water
than they really are such as black corals, which are found as shallow
as 5 metres in these waters instead of their usual 30 or more.

As we travelled out towards the Tasman Sea
the sun came into the valley and we marvelled at the small rivers cascading
over the edges of the high valley sides and pounding into the fjord. A fellow
passenger remarked it was similar geography to the fjords of Norway.

At the mouth of the sound fur seals basked
high up on rocky outcrops safe from the sharks or any orcas that might be in
the area. They hunt at night and spend their days sleeping and basking in the
sun. They didn't seem to mind the boat and slumbered in the sun.

Doubtful sound got its name from Captain
Cook when he was exploring the area aboard the Endeavour. Sailing a square rig
ship he was doubtful as to whether he would be able to sail her out again if he
went in, so never did.

On our return trip up the sound we met
another penguin cruising through the surface waters. This one was a blue
penguin, New Zealand's smallest penguin species at only 40cm tall. We also met
our dolphin pod returning back out to sea. They were only too happy to give us
a second display- this time venturing very close to the boat!

Early morning mist on Lake Manapouri

Early morning smile on Lake Manapouri

Leaving the mooring behind looking up to the Wilmot Pass

Out on the sound

A couple of bottlenose dolphins, part of a huge pod we met first thing

We catch a wave from a few fur seals at the mouth of the sound

The swell built up during the morning

Still not enough for Chris to spill the coffee though - big hair shot!